QR Codes in Education: The Business School Experience

Quick Response (QR) codes, the 2-D bar codes are becoming the new norm for businesses to reach their customers and provide a fast user-friendly way to access relevant content online through the use of mobile technology. Educational institutions are on the uptake in making use of these 21st century tools as a way to engage their main stakeholders, i.e. students. Within the Business School we have recently experimented with using QR codes across several programmes. This has stared with codes leading to library materials and has expanded gradually into further areas such as marketing, programme contact details and learning resources. This presentation is going to introduce our experience, including some statistics on user involvement and feedback from students and staff, as well as some innovative endeavours in exploiting these free resources

The ‘I’ in Induction, 7th e-learning@greenwich conference

Comparing two different approaches to under-graduate Induction; face-to-face (on-campus students) vs. online delivery (fully online students), and how we ‘Make it Personal’

A Framework for Information Architecture for Business Networks

The concept of Information Architecture (IA) has been independently explored by researchers and practitioners in Information Engineering, Information Systems (ISmanagement, information visualisation and Web site design. However, little has been achieved towards its standardisation within and across these subject domains. To bridge the existing subject divide this study conducts a systematic analysis of publications on frameworks for Information Architecture developed in the field of IS planning and Information Engineering and elicits both common and desirable IA dimensions. It concludes that regardless of their originating subject field, existing IA frameworks are internally focused and have limited effectiveness for dynamic e-business alliances. To address this deficiency, related subject domains such as Systems Theory and Systems Modelling, Web design and virtual team working are explored and ideas are generated for further architectural components such as events, standards, aggregation level and trust that are not supported by existing IAs, but are of high importance for e-business. These are synthesized with the most prevalent IA dimensions identified earlier into a conceptual framework for IA for electronically mediated business networks, called FEBus ffra. network for Information Architecture for Electronically mediated Business networks. The structural viability and usability of the proposed analytical vehicle are evaluated over the period 2001-2003 using a triangulation of a Delphi study, an electronic survey, and evaluation interviews. The participants, representing three self-selecting samples of experienced UK academics and practitioners interested in IA, confirmed the need for an IA framework for e-business alliances and proposed and proved the scope, merits and limitations of the tool. Their views formed the basis for some amendments to the framework and for recommendations for future research. This thesis presents an original contribution to IA knowledge through the comprehensive critical analysis of frameworks on IA and the development of a set of fundamental requirements for IA for e-business environments. Its importance is also seen in the synthesis of the research on 1A conducted in different subject areas. The architectural tool built as an extension of the reviewed IA works constitutes another original aspect of this research. Finally, the novel multi-method evaluation approach employed in the study and the critical examination of its operability, present an advancement of existing knowledge on methodological diversity in IS research

Developing Global Talent for the World of Work through staff-student-industry collaboration and co-creation on a global scale

This case study reports on the organisation and impact of the Global Talent for the World of Work forum (aka the WoW forum) 2019, as captured through a comprehensive framework of key performance statistics, reflections and qualitative feedback from staff, students, industry partners and other participants in the event. The WoW forum was the main deliverable from a British Council funded project for enhancing Higher Education (HE) Partnership with Vietnamese universities. The forum built on the experience of BU in running 9 Global Festivals of Learning (GFOL) over the past 4 years, partnering with HE partners in India, China ASEAN and Europe. Students play a critical role in these events, with their roles and the activities for the WoW event designed to accommodate latest seminal work on the future of jobs (WEF, 2018) and the global graduate skills gap (ISE,2019). The settings of the WoW forum offered rich foundation using a critical participatory action research as an learning platform for participants to share their knowledge, experiences and reflections on innovative HE-industry practices. It concludes that multi-dimensional events such as GFOLs and the WoW forum demonstrate the value of ‘comprehensive internationalisation’

Brain Drain from Central and Eastern Europe

When communism collapsed many feared that the resulting 'brain drain' would both cripple the economies of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and finally result in a flow of scientific and technical expertise into undesirable weapon development. A collaborative survey carried out in ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, however, has revealed that the brain drain was much less serious than once feared. It also shows that the EU programmes supporting science in Central and Eastern Europe have the potential to contribute towards greater stability and to encourage scientists to remain in their home institutes. Social scientists recognized the need to help the former communist states through their inevitable period of transition and instability As an initial step, the BRAIN-DRAIN project was set up to monitor and analyze the movement of scientific staff in and from ten former communist countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The objectives were to study the loss of academic staff from academies of science, universities and research institutes; to distinguish between academic groups which were more or less inclined to migrate according to professional areas of interest, age, ethnic background, level of qualification; and to collect information about working conditions and other motivations for leaving or staying. The project was financed by the European Commission and carried out within the framework of COST. The present publication contains a synthesis report on the studies carried out in the different countries as well as summary reports from the countries which participated in the project. Though the reports are different in size and structure, they still give a valuable overview on the situation of emigration and brain drain after the political and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe

Brain Drain from Central and Eastern Europe

When communism collapsed many feared that the resulting 'brain drain' would both cripple the economies of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and finally result in a flow of scientific and technical expertise into undesirable weapon development. A collaborative survey carried out in ten Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, however, has revealed that the brain drain was much less serious than once feared. It also shows that the EU programmes supporting science in Central and Eastern Europe have the potential to contribute towards greater stability and to encourage scientists to remain in their home institutes. Social scientists recognized the need to help the former communist states through their inevitable period of transition and instability As an initial step, the BRAIN-DRAIN project was set up to monitor and analyze the movement of scientific staff in and from ten former communist countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The objectives were to study the loss of academic staff from academies of science, universities and research institutes; to distinguish between academic groups which were more or less inclined to migrate according to professional areas of interest, age, ethnic background, level of qualification; and to collect information about working conditions and other motivations for leaving or staying. The project was financed by the European Commission and carried out within the framework of COST. The present publication contains a synthesis report on the studies carried out in the different countries as well as summary reports from the countries which participated in the project. Though the reports are different in size and structure, they still give a valuable overview on the situation of emigration and brain drain after the political and economic changes in Central and Eastern Europe

The Highs and Lows of Ubiquitous Connectivity: Investigating University Students' Experiences and Connections with Well-being

Higher Education has seen a dramatic increase in the use of information and communication technologies in recent years. Universities around the world have built complex Information System infrastructures implementing local networks, wireless networks, cloud services and Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). These technological changes have stretched and expanded the boundaries of traditional campus universities in space and time allowing easy and ubiquitous access to people, information and services. The term “ubiquitous connectivity” identifies this enhanced accessibility to resources due to the development of infrastructures and devices. This qualitative research adopted a holistic approach to investigate how new technologies and ubiquitous connectivity affect university students’ experiences and consequent well-being. Data were collected from on-campus students and staff members (lecturers, learning technologists, tech support, programme administrators) using a qualitative survey, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The data were analysed using constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2006) and situational analysis (Clarke 2005). The data analysis shows that new technologies and ubiquitous connectivity appear to play a positive role in enhancing students’ well-being by providing them: 1. A sense of ease and freedom in managing their daily learning duties 2. A sense of connectedness with other students and lecturers 3. A sense of reassurance by knowing that peer and lecturer support is always at hand 4. A sense of improved workflow by using mobile devices to retrieve information and to take notes anytime and anywhere during the day 5. Flexibility in managing everyday life and in balancing study, work and leisure. However, in some cases new technologies and ubiquitous connectivity seem to have a negative impact on learners’ well-being. The data analysis shows that students can experience: 1. High levels of stress when technology failures occur or when online information is not accessible due to the lack of alternatives in performing their learning duties 2. Difficulties in managing information overload and the constant flux of information arriving to their devices 3. Stress and irritation when dealing with complicate website layouts and disorganised online materials 4. Lack of motivation in attending lectures due to the ease with which materials and information can be retrieved from the VLE and from peers using social apps and networks. 5. Difficulties in developing relationships with lecturers and peers due to the lack of face-to-face communication. These findings can be utilised to provide pedagogical suggestions to university stakeholders to avoid a negative impact of new technologies and ubiquitous connectivity on learners’ well-being and to improve the quality of students’ experiences

9 Dimensions of Quality Education

This publication summarises the 9 key dimensions of quality education in the context of sustainable development

Strategies for Digital Inclusion: Towards a Pedagogy for Embracing and Sustaining Student Diversity and Engagement with Online Learning

This paper reports on the progress of a current PhD research study. The research study will evolve through four phases and eventually develop a conceptual framework for effective teaching and learning approaches that influence digital inclusion and exclusion of students from diverse backgrounds. It will also seek to identify differences in learner characteristics and how these characteristics impact on needs, experiences and engagement with technology for learning, specifically within a blended learning programme. The research will move away from traditional definitions of diversity and explore the differing characteristics of a varied learner population. The research adopts a critical realist perspective, using a qualitative multi-phase methodology that will evolve sequentially in the future. The focus of this paper is to outline the research to date. Phase 1 and Phase 2 have been completed and are reported in this paper. Findings suggest that digital exclusion cannot be predicted or dealt with by categorising students into groupings of: gender, age, ethnicity, geography, socio-economic status and educational background. Additionally, the findings indicate that digital exclusion is influenced by organisational factors, such as elements of the course content or navigation of the virtual learning environment rather than intrinsic factors such as individual technological skills